


today is special; yesterday was not

by Rhe



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, Mentioned Character Death, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 17:28:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/612370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhe/pseuds/Rhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the prompt: "AU where Aradia, a forensic anthropologist and Terezi, a prosecutor (both fresh out of school) are both working on the same case. Eventually they realize the most likely suspect is Vriska, with whom they both share a past."</p>
            </blockquote>





	today is special; yesterday was not

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aModicumofGrace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aModicumofGrace/gifts).



> Hi aModicumofGrace! I hope you enjoy your gift. I loved all of your prompts, but this was the one that stood out to me the most. It's just a oneshot, though hopefully it at least has the spirit of what you were looking for.

You are completely done with today.

 It's been the kind of soul-sucking night that has the tendency to rear its ugly head after too many caffeine-fueled nights before it. You thought that once you left school and landed the job of your dreams this sort of thing would stop being nightmarish and start feeling tolerable, if not enjoyable. You wanted to become a legislacerator! It's the thing you'd been preparing for since you were just a wriggler! You were _hatched_ to fill this role.

 Now that you're living the dream, it's getting harder and harder to keep telling yourself that.

 You step off of the subway when you hear the soft mechanical whirring of the doors opening and walk the familiar path back to your communal hivestem. It's tiny and claustrophobic and overpriced but the location is close enough to your work to justify both the price and less than enjoyable living conditions. After a brief walk that you could probably make in your sleep by this point, you arrive at home and drop your keys on the counter, fully prepared to fall into your recuperacoon and sleep for the rest of your life.

 A soft beeping greets you as you pass your telephone, alerting you to a missed call and waiting message. You hit the play button and start unbuttoning your shirt, but if someone thinks you're going to come back to headquarters today they are _sorely_ mistaken. Instead of a coworker whining at you to come cover for them, however, it's Aradia's voice you hear coming through the grainy speaker.

 “Hi, I know you're not at the hive right now, but I the lab results just came in and I thought you'd want to be the first to know what's up! Give me a call as soon as you get this, okay? I really can't keep it between the two of us for long.”

 Your chest feels like it's being crushed as you pick up the phone and dial her number, cradling the headpiece haphazardly between your head and shoulder. You and Aradia were only working on one case together. The Nitram case.

 Tavros Nitram had been found stabbed through the chest three weeks ago near a seedy dockside strip of taverns and pawn shops. Most legislacerators would have given the case minimal attention and resources – he was a rookie cavalreaper who was clearly mixing with the wrong crowd. Even you would be hard pressed to devote any kind of serious attention to another case similar to this one under normal circumstances. Resources were hard to come by, even when it was one of your old friends lying in the morgue.

 Luckily for you, someone from the forensics team had a personal interest in the case. Aradia was much closer to Tavros than you had ever been.

 “Hi, Terezi?” You're jolted from your reverie when Aradia finally picks up the phone and you're forced to respond to her far-too-cheery greeting.

 “Hey,” you rub between your eyes to try and relieve the headache growing there. “What did you find?”

 She found out who it was, and you're not ready to hear it. The one who murdered Tavros had done so intimately, had arranged his body so _painstakingly_ , that you knew who drove his own lance through his chest before Aradia called to let you know, and -

 “Terezi? Are you still there?” Aradia's voice cuts through the fog cluttering up your mind, and you blink in surprise.

 “I'm here. Sorry, it's just been a long day. Legislacerators never sleep!” You laugh, and it hurts.

 “Did you just hear anything I said?” Apparently your laugh hasn't convinced her that you're okay either.

 “I zoned out. Go ahead and lay the details on me!”

 “It's Vriska. She's the one who killed Tavros.” She says the words you didn't want to hear, that you had been expecting since day one, and that you knew were true.

 “I see,” is all you can say, and you have to fight the overwhelming urge to laugh at your poor choice of words. Seeing is not something you have done since you were five sweeps old.

 Now she's talking again. “I know this is what you thought might be the case, but now it's for sure. Based on the location of the DNA we recovered I believe there was some kind of altercation between the two – but we need Vriska to fill in the blanks, and she's been missing since the time of the murder.”

 “Vriska's not going to come in easy,” you say, leaning against the wall. “She must be in something deep if she got angry enough to kill Tavros.”

 “I know. They were together, even after everything she did...” She trails off, and you yawn despite the fresh adrenaline buzzing through your veins. If you head out now, you can probably make it to the bars before they close and question a few bartenders about seeing a blueblood with an eyepatch.

 “Anyway, I don't think you should go searching for her until tomorrow! You're tired, and don't even pretend like you haven't been running yourself ragged since we opened this case. Vriska can wait until your thinkpan is fully functioning again.”

 “My thinkpan is completely functional! It is _always_ completely functional. Comes with being a legislacerator, Spooky, I've told you before.”

 She laughs, and the sound of it makes some of the heaviness from earlier ease off. “You're not going anywhere, Ms. Pyrope. I'll make sure of that.”

 “Oh really?”

 "Yes really. When's the last time you've eaten?”

 There's a long enough pause before you can even attempt to speak that you know you're busted.

“Sometime today.”

 “That's what I thought,” she says. “And I'm not going to stand for it. What do you want for dinner? I can pick it up for you and bring it over.”

 “I've got plenty of instant nutrition packets over here, you don't have to do that.” Even if you want her to do that, you're not going to admit it so easily. Admitting weakness will get you nowhere in this world.

 “Nice try, but I'm going to do it no matter what!” The smile you know is on her face is practically audible. “Curry sounds good, don't you think?”

 Oh, she's good. You cannot resist curry and she knows it.

 “If you're going to come over and bring food no matter what I say, than yes, curry sounds good,” you say, and you stifle another yawn.

 “Great! I'll see you in a few!” She hangs up the phone before you can reply, the obnoxious beeping from a dead line twanging in your ear for a few seconds before you drop the handset back in its cradle.

 Now that you have some time to kill before Aradia arrives, you sniff around your hive and find to your growing dismay that the place is a complete wreck. Normally this would be a non-issue. These are not normal circumstances. You're not a very tidy person at the best of times – she knows this very well – but this far exceeds your normal limits. As you pass by the small kitchen area, you smell some fruit on the counter that has gone far beyond its cheery red scent and has now faded into a musty brown one. This seems appropriate, and you can't help but smile while you push it into the trash bin.

 The worst of the mess is cleared away before Aradia arrives. Most of it went into the bin or under the futon shoved against the wall opposite your recuperacoon. It was left here by the previous owner, and if it gets somehow tainted from the collected junk you shoved there you don't care.

 When there's a soft knock on the door you're kicking around a few boxes of old case files to try and corral your dirty laundry. You leave it as is and open the door, and the smell of fresh food practically assaults you.

 “That is the most delicious thing I have smelled in ages, and it would be criminal if you didn't share it with me right now.” You step aside so she can get through, then follow the smell to your newly-cleared counter top.

“Don't worry ma'am, I intend to stay on the good side of the law.” She laughs, and something in your chest flutters. “How much do you want to start?”

 You rest your chin on her shoulder and sniff happily at the food she's dishing out and suddenly you're ravenous. “A lot. You should get what you want first. Probably I will eat everything and then feel terrible about it otherwise.”

 “You shouldn't feel terrible about that, when's the last time you even ate?” She pokes at your ribs with her elbow, and you twitch away. This is a rather sore subject!

“I don't see how that's any of your business. I'm still up and running, aren't I?”

 She turns around and presses a large carton of food into one hand and a fork into the other, and you feel your stomach rumble traitorously. You can tell she's not happy with your evasiveness but you're not about to break down in front of her. Unfortunately for you, Aradia isn't the type to back down from a challenge and you know it. She's headstrong and once she decides to help someone they have no choice in the matter. You always found it funny to watch her fuss at her assistants, but now that you're the one on the receiving end of it you aren't sure how you feel.

“You're running downhill on empty towards a very thick concrete wall, and when you hit that wall going a hundred miles an hour I'll end up with your body in jigsaw pieces on my workbench,” she says. “Since I happen to be especially fond of you, I'd hate to see you dead.”

 With a soft huff she's gone and settled herself on the futon. “Even if you would make a stunning corpse.”

 You can feel your cheeks heat at this comment, and left speechless you follow her out onto the futon. She scoots over to make room for you and so you settle in, basking in the warmth she seems to radiate at all times. She is very warm and soft and comforting and you feel as if you'd like to keep her next to you for a very long time. The meal is quickly finished in near-silence, and although physically you're more comfortable than you have been in ages you're still mentally on pins and needles. As if she can sense this, Aradia sets aside her now-empty carton and puts her hand on your knee.

 “I meant what I said. You need to rest, or else you're going to burn out.”

 It takes a moment for you to finish chewing the last bite of food you crammed into your mouth, and you use those precious moments to try and think of a witty response. Wit seems to have utterly abandoned you. Your life is barren and you are going to lodge a formal complaint to whomever is responsible for it.

 “I won't,” you say. “It's just been a hard few weeks.”

 You fiddle with the empty carton in your hands until Aradia gently takes it from you and sets it next to hers. You feel her make a motion towards you, hesitate, then move again. Her hand is now on your shoulder that's farthest from the side she's on, and her arm is behind your back. “I know it has, and you've been going at it with everything you have. I'm impressed I didn't need to step in before this, although I probably should have.”

 “Objection. I don't think I would have let you come into my hive and coddle me like this if things hadn't already gone this far,” you say, and grin at her. You're a little afraid, to be honest. There hasn't been anyone you've cared about as much as Aradia in a very long time.

 She lightly pulls you closer to her, and you rest your head in the crook of her neck. In this position, you can feel the vibration of her voice when she speaks. “Than I'm glad I didn't try before now.”

 She's rubbing the back of your neck now and it feels positively glorious. You close your eyes and sigh, tension slowly easing from your body as her fingers work their magic. At this moment you would be prepared to swear that what she was doing actually was magic. You haven't felt this safe and _still_ in ages. Even your mind is quiet, and you realize how much you needed this. A soft laugh rouses you slightly, and you tilt your head up and make a questioning noise.

 “Sorry, I was just thinking that I've never seen you so still.”

 You nestle back down, tucking your sharp edges into more comfortable positions. “That's because I haven't been this still since before schoolfeeding.”

 “Then it's high time you were, isn't it?”

 She chuckles again and you stay put this time. You're warm and content and now you think you'll be able to sleep during the day without dreams of your missing sister haunting you. You aren't sure what exactly Aradia sees in you, but you realize that you'd help her in a heartbeat should your places be reversed. You fall into a half doze when she starts petting your hair, and you think that you're on to something good.

 


End file.
